The first incarnation of the group unofficially debuted in The Brave and the Bold #54 (July 1964), before appearing as "The Teen Titans" in #60, and again in Showcase #59 (December 1965). These appearances led to a comic of the same name (debuting with a cover date of February 1966) which ran until 1972/1973, when it was cancelled with issue #43. Briefly revived in 1976 for a further 10 issues, the series was again cancelled after #53 told the team's origin for the first time.[1]
Previewed in DC Comics Presents #26, the New Teen Titans series ran for 40 issues (until March 1984), before changing title to Tales of the Teen Titans between issues #41 and #91. To capitalise on the series' success, DC launched a separate New Teen Titans title concurrent to the renamed Tales... title on better-quality paper. After several months featuring twice as many new Titans stories, Tales of the Teen Titans #59 turned that title into a reprint comic, with #60β91 reprinting the second series at a delay of about 15 months from issue #1β32 under new covers. The reprint title eventually floundered and was cancelled in July 1988.[2]
Key team
No longer restricted solely to sidekicks to existing heroes, the Titans team branched out and included key heroes such as the college-aged Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Raven.
With DC's Teen Titans comics rivaling Marvel's X-Men for popularity, another new title was launched, this time with the explicit purpose of highlighting individual Titans, rather than focusing on the team as a whole.[5] With the stated remit (from the first comic) that, "Teen Titans Spotlight On: is a new concept in comics ... a book where we can put the spotlight on individual members of the Teen Titans, one at a time, and let each story dictate how many issues it should run."[5][6] The series ran for 21 issues, departing slightly from its aim to highlight individuals, and culminating in a "Spotlight" on the 1960s Teen Titans team as a whole.[7]
As part of the "Titans Hunt" storyline in New Teen Titans vol. 2, a further Titans-related title was launched with a five-comic issue #1(a-e) in September 1992, featuring the time-displaced "Team Titans".[8] This comic series ran concurrently to the New Teen Titans vol. 2 series, as the Team Titans crossed over both with that series and with Deathstroke. Teen Titans resources website TitansTower.com quotes writer/artist Phil Jimenez as saying that this series was effectively DC's answer to X-Force, but wound up (under Jimenez) going in directions contrary to DC's vision and the Zero Hour crossover event, which led to the series' cancellation with issue #24 (September 1994), after the team's timeline was eradicated during the event.[8]
September 1998 also saw the launch of writer Peter David's Teen Titans-esque title Young Justice, featuring the main DCU teenaged heroes the third Robin, the time-displaced Flash-descendant Impulse, and the cloned Superboy (with the later additions of Arrowette and the second Wonder Girl, among others).[10]
By popular demand, the original Teen Titans team (now all older, and under new aliases) was given its own title once more in March 1999, after a three-issue (December 1998 β February 1999) mini-series teaming them with the JLA in JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative, which "featured absolutely everyone that was ever a Titan, as they joined together to save Cyborg from alien influence."[11] Following that mini-series (written by Devin Grayson and Phil Jimenez, with art by Jimenez), the new The Titans series debuted in March 1999, written by Grayson, with art initially by Mark Buckingham and Wade Von Grawbadger. Grayson left after 20 issues, and the series continued until issue #50 (April 2003), and the team reappeared in Judd Winick's JulyβAugust 2003 3-issue mini-series Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day. This crossover, with the then-current (and Titans-like) Young Justice team, marked the dissolution of both the Young Justice and Titans teams, as well as the alleged death of Troia and the seemingly lasting death of Omen.[10][11]
Outsiders vol. 3 (2003β2007)
The Graduation Day crossover marked the end of The Titans and Young Justice, but served as a launch point for two new series and teams, one of which was Winick's own Outsiders, which debuted in August 2003, and featured some former Titans (notably original Teen Titans Arsenal and Nightwing) in an "edgy, more grown up" series, which ran for 50 issues, until November 2007.[12]
In addition to the more "adult"-oriented Outsiders series, the end of The Titans and the events of Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day saw the debut of a third Teen Titans series, launched in September 2003 by writer Geoff Johns (who would write the first 45 issues, as well as sundry spin-offs), with artist Mike McKone for most of the first 23 issues. The series featured (and features) Titans old and new, including the core Young Justice team, whose Robin, Impulse, and Wonder Girl fill the shoes of original Titans' first Robin, Kid Flash, and Wonder Girl. The team was founded by other former-Titans Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy, and continues to tie into most previous incarnations of the team in a number of ways.[13] The series would run for 100 issues before ending in 2011.
In June 2008, a new Titans title was launched to run alongside Teen Titans vol. 3, initially featuring a storyline based around an attack on all former Titans. The cover to issue #1 confirmed the inclusion of original Titans Nightwing, Starfire, Donna Troy, Flash, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven. The series is written by Judd Winick, and features art by Joe Benitez and Victor Llamas.[14] The first issue has art by Ian Churchill, but due to an injury he was unable to pencil the next three issues. The series would run for 38 issues before ending in 2011.
Teen Titans was relaunched in September 2011 with the New 52 reboot, with the brand new initial roster of Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Superboy, Kid Flash, Bunker, Solstice, and Skitter. The series was written by Scott Lobdell, with Brett Booth serving as lead artist from issues #1β16. The series would run for 36 issues before ending in May 2014.
The various Teen Titans comics series have crossed over with titles including Action Comics Weekly, Crisis on Infinite Earths (written and illustrated by the New Teen Titans creative team), Deathstroke (spun off into his own comic, but initially created as a Titans villain), Hawk and Dove, Infinity Inc., Omega Men, Outsiders, Young Justice, and Zero Hour. In addition, various Titans have starred in their own comics, which occasionally had a bearing on Titans-related matters β these include (in particular) original Teen Titans Donna Troy and Dick Grayson in Darkstars and Nightwing, respectively, and more recent Titans Tim Drake, Bart Allen, and Kon El in Robin, Impulse, and Superboy, among many others.
Sundry one-shots, crossovers, and specials have also been published through the years. These include Annuals, Secret Files issues, and include notable issues such as:
Marvel and DC Present: The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans #1 (1982)
The New Teen Titans (Drug Awareness Specials) #1β3 (1983)
Titans $ell-out! Special #1 (1992)
Tempest #1β4 (1996β1997)
Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone (1997) (a manga-style Elseworlds title)
Arsenal #1β4 (1998)
Girlfrenzy: Donna Troy (1998)
JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative #1β3 (1998β1999)
Beast Boy #1β4 (2000)
Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes: Universe Ablaze #1β4 (2000)
Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1β3 (2003)
Teen Titans/Legion Special #1 (2004)
DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #1β4 (2005)
Although the TV series was unable to use the character of Wonder Girl "[d]ue to licensing restrictions," she became a recurring character in the tie-in comic in Teen Titans Go! #36, using a design by producer Glen Murakami, who also provided the cover art to that issue.[15] The series was written by J. Torres, with art primarily by Todd Nauck and Larry Stucker. It outlasted the TV show, running 55 issues through July 2008.
In February 2008, a second Johnny DC children's Titans title was launched, this time clearly dropping the "Teen" moniker, in favor of highlighting the youth of the characters featured. Written and illustrated by Art Baltazar and Franco, the series features "your favorite Titans, in their cutest possible form,"[16] with each issue featuring a number of "cute" stories.[17] Unlike Teen Titans Go!, which has an overtly Japanese anime style, Tiny Titans is more reminiscent of American children's cartoons, albeit sometimes described as utilising the chibi form, by virtue of its "tiny" subjects.[18]
Publications
Primary ongoing series
Teen Titans #1β53 (February 1966 β February 1973; November 1976 β February 1978)
The New Teen Titans #1β40 (November 1980 β March 1984)
The New Teen Titans Annual #1β2 (1982β1983)
Tales of the Teen Titans #41β58 (April 1984 β October 1985)
Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3β4 (1984β1986)
The New Teen Titans vol. 2, #1β49 (August 1984 β November 1988)
The New Teen Titans Annual vol. 2, #1β4 (1985β1988)
The New Titans #50β130 (December 1988 β December 1995)
The New Titans Annual #5β11 (1989β1995)
Teen Titans vol. 2, #1β24 (August 1996 β July 1998)
Teen Titans Annual vol. 2, #1 (1997)
The Titans #1β50 (January 1999 β February 2003)
The Titans Annual #1 (2000)
Teen Titans vol. 3, #1β100 (July 2003 β August 2011)
Teen Titans Annual vol. 3, #1β2 (2006β2009)
Titans vol. 2, #1β38 (April 2008 β August 2011)
Titans Annual vol. 2, #1 (2011)
Teen Titans vol. 4, #1β30 (September 2011 β April 2014)
Teen Titans Annual vol. 4, #1β3 (2012β2014)
Teen Titans vol. 5, #1β24 (July 2014β September 2016)
The New Teen Titans #38, Tales of the Teen Titans #45β50, The New Teen Titans vol. 2 #1β6, The New Titans #50β61, #66β67, and Secret Origins Annual #3
The New Teen Titans #38 Tales of the Teen Titans #50 The New Titans #50β54, select pages from #55 "Who Was Donna Troy?" back-up story from Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files and Origins 2003
Note: Issues #27β28, penciled by artist Rob Liefeld and written by Gail Simone, are not collected in any of the trade paperbacks and were reprinted in DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day #3 (Feb. 2011), which also included Legends of the DC Universe #26β27 (tying in with characters spotlighted in Brightest Day). Issues #48β49, which tie in with the "Amazons Attack" Wonder Woman story, are likewise not collected in a trade paperback.
Vol. #
Title
Material collected
Pages
ISBN
1
A Kid's Game
Teen Titans vol. 3 #1β7 Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files and Origins 2003
^Wonder Girl was initially a teenage version of Diana/Wonder Woman, so the discrepancy was "cleared up" through the creation of the character Donna Troy. She has subsequently undergone a plethora of revisions and identity crises, to be retro-fitted into subsequent continuities. As a result, she has become something of a Crisis-nexus, playing a key role in DC's Infinite Crisis and related titles and events.